4moms obsession

Just so you know, this is not something that anyone is paying me to do or say.  I just want to share with mom's out there a recommendation for a few AMAZING products.  

When you are a mom-to-be and go into a big box baby store to register is can be QUITE overwhelming to say the least.  I remember trying to prepare and get advice/lists from my friends that were already moms on what they really needed.  I scoured the internet for registry recommendation posts and bought the baby 411 book (which I would highly recommend as well - honestly that explained half of the products to me that I didn't know what we were used for).  One of the must-have items of course is a swing.  I had heard opinions from people on what to buy and what not to buy, but when my friend Vanessa posted about an awesome craigslist find swing she got for her baby-to-be way back when we were both pregnant, I figured we would go see just how awesome she said it was.  And that is when we were introduced to 4moms. 

I read all about this "spaceship type" swing called the mamaroo and so Jimmy and I decided to put it on our registry.  We were lucky enough to have some great friends at work that pooled some money together and bought it for us, as the price tag was a little steep.  But it was super cool looking at it sat in the nursery waiting for Charlie's arrival.

It turned out that Charlie loved it so much.  They made this swing to really mimic YOUR movements, as it slowly rocks your baby.  I know I have heard some babies that really don't like it and like the vibrating aspect that lots of other swings or bouncers have, but we stuck with just this one so Charlie never knew the difference.  It was great as a little baby when he was sleeping and we still even use it now every once and a while when he's restless and needs a little soothing but is a little too heavy for me to rock for 30 minutes.  Plus it's SUPER soft (we got the plush one), easy to adjust the incline and we've used it with our iPod a few times for some soothing music. 

Overall - so happy with this purchase and there are days when I seriously am so thankful for this because it does calm him down.

So onto the real product that I want to rave about.  This is a newer 4moms item and came out in October of 2012.  At that point, we had a 3 month old already and had our Graco Pack n Play that we had registered for and my mom was so sweet to buy us.  Charlie slept in that Pack n Play with the bassinet feature for the first month or so of his life (alternating with the Fisher Price rock n' play sleeper) and then we had the daunting task of figuring out how to fold it back up and get all the pack n play parts into the bag.  Literally - I feel like we are decently smart human beings, but assembling and un-assembling that pack n play was NOT easy at all.  When we were set to go on a trip to Omaha late October, we were dreading dragging it all with us and setting it up and taking it back down.  Dreading it.

That's when we saw that 4moms was coming out with a new playyard.  With a higher price tag ($300), I immediately wrote it off.  Just another way too expensive baby product that I refused to get sucked into buying.  Especially because we had a perfectly fine pack n play.  Jimmy however, watched all the videos and features on the Breeze playyard and was dead set that we NEEDED this thing.  I watched the videos, etc. and still told him I thought it was an absurd amount of money that we were forking over for an item we already had, but I let him pre-order it and he was so excited.  It didn't end up coming in time for our trip to Omaha, which was a bummer, but he was pretty excited when it finally came.

We have used it a few times when we have spent the night at my parents house (Christmas Eve and then when our power was out) and I knew it was easy, but I wasn't the one that was assembling it and un-assembling it.  This past weekend though?  We made another trip up to Iowa and took the trusty Breeze for Charlie to sleep in and holy moly - I fell in love and felt so good about this $300 purchase about 5 months after we made it.  Mainly because I was the one assembling and un-assembling this time.  We didn't get to Iowa until 11:30PM, so of course Charlie was a little restless after some decent car sleeping and all I wanted to do was get him to bed for real.  So simple.  Literally just take everything out of the bag, push the middle down, snap on the bassinet netting, stick in the hard bottom (after putting on the sheet) and that's it.  Ready for him to sleep.  He was fast asleep literally 10 minutes after we got into our room.  THEN - we had to move rooms between Friday and Saturday night because the hotel screwed up.  Taking it down, packing it up and moving rooms to set it back up again.  No problem at all.  I kept thinking to myself how annoyed I would have been if we had our old pack n play (and don't worry - it's still being used, my mom has it set up in her room at her house for when Charlie's over there and needs a nap).  It literally would have taken SO long to take it down and then put it all back up again.  I was so happy with the Breeze.  Time and convenience are everything when you are traveling and trying to keep a 7.5 month old occupied - and the Breeze delivered all of that to us.  Plus it was so easy to get into the bag and carry to the car.  I cannot say more wonderful things about this thing.

Here are some pictures of it from their website:

This is with the bassinet feature that we are still using with Charlie

Literally - this is ALL you do.

So I don't know if anyone cares, but I just had to post this because I couldn't be more satisfied with this thing.  The company is pretty cool and still small and began based off of a mom's focus group.  It's very obvious that mom's come up with these awesome products that they make because they are mom-friendly (if that is an adjective).  While the products are expensive, depending on what you are looking for, I really think it's worth the investment.  I have heard great things about their stroller (the Origami) - it even charges your cell phone (yes please), but with a super hefty price tag of $849, that one wasn't in the cards for us and our City Mini by Baby Jogger does the job just fine.  However, if you have extra cash to burn - it sounds great!!

They also came out with a bath collection which is pretty neat too that you can check out on their website - their tub is supposed to allow clean water to flow in and dirty water out (which if you have a kid that pees in the tub like mine does, that might be really helpful) and the water spout might be something I would invest in as well.

So there you have it.  My rave review on the Breeze play yard and really on 4moms in general.  If you are a mom-to-be looking for a play yard registry recommendation, I would highly recommend it.  Even though it doesn't have the newborn napper or changing area like some of the other ones do, I really think long-term, this one is perfect (I mean, I change my kid's diaper on the floor and I live).  It's such a "breeze" (pun intended) to assemble and un-assemble, I really think we will get way more use out of it by taking it wherever we need versus our other one.

Anyone else have the Breeze, Mamaroo or any of the other 4moms products and have a good (or bad) experience?  I would love to hear, as this is just my personal opinion!